RE-READING ALICE WALKER’S THE COLOR PURPLE FROM TWO PERSPECTIVES: VICTIMIZATION - OBJECTIFICATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN AND SELF-ASSERTION

Abstract

The Color Purple written by Alice walker is a novel which relates the domestic and incestuous relations African American women endured in their community during the 1920’s through the 1930’s. The present work intends to study Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple from two perspectives. Celie, the protagonist is a poor and uneducated little Black girl abused, raped and impregnated by her father Alphonso on the one hand, and ill-treated during a difficult and joyless married life with Mr. ______, on the other hand. Celie has endured economical, sexual, physical, mental and psychological abuses from her presumed father and her husband. She is victimized, objectified and deprived from her personality and identity. This novel shows how sex - offenders oppress little Black girls in a patriarchal society, and how the innocence of their victims is violated. The author, through a series of incidents, has tried to depict the objectification of the female sex on one hand, and the girls’ victimization portrayed on the other hand. The victimization of Black girls is characterized by the odious acts committed to violate their innocence. The novel shows not only the submissiveness and passiveness of the African American woman when facing her harsh conditions, but also her progressive efforts to assert herself in view of being self-fulfilled and regaining her identity. This article offers objectification and victimization theory as a framework for understanding the consequences of being female in a culture that sexually denies the female body her selfrespect.